Violation: Expansions in Miskuyut colony.
Location: Wadi al Maleh, northern Jordan Valley.
Perpetrators: Miskuyut colonists.
Date: April, 2011.
Details:
The Jordan Valley area has been witnessing huge colonial activities organized by the colonies councils in the area aiming to confiscate as much Palestinian lands as possible. It must be noted that the Jordan Valley region has been an Israeli target since the conquest of the West bank in 1967.
That was apparent in the speeches of current and previous Israeli officials who insisted on the importance of the region and stated that it is as “important as Jerusalem”. The Jordan Valley area occupies one third of the overall area of the West Bank. It must be noted that colonization in the Jordan valley had not been frozen during the so-called moratorium period which lasted for ten months starting from November, 2011.
The starting point of a new colonization plan in the Valley area with a projected plan for 1303 km2 took place back then. Miskuyut, a so-called agricultural colony, was leading the expansion process, the colony total area multiplied despite its small population.The visitor of Wadi al Maleh can see the adding of numerous caravans and mobile houses in addition to plowings of more than 140 dunums north of the colony.
Picture: 1
Consolidating colonization in the Jordan Valley:
Mohammad al Mallah, the Legal Advisor for Tubas Governorate, stated to an LRC observer: “the Israelis are implementing discriminatory policies in the Jordan Valley; starting with arbitrary evictions under various pretexts such as military zones, natural reserves, or colonists areas and ending with depriving the Palestinians from their basic rights of water access and exploiting their lands in addition to demolishing their residences and shacks”.
He pointed out a great danger threatening the lands in the area saying that the Israelis are using various methods for taking over Palestinian lands; Palestinians are currently able to exploit less than 10% of the Jordan Valley area while the rest is used by the Israelis as military training grounds, mine fields, and for colonial expansions.
Miskuyut was established in 2002 on the ruins of an Israeli military camp that stood in the area since the 1970’s.The military camp was used to observe the Jordanian borders because Wadi al Maleh overlooks the Jordanian mountains on the other side of the borders.
In 2002, the military camp was evacuated before being filled by Israeli religious students. After the Israeli evacuation of Gaza in 2005, many colonists who used to live in colonies in Gaza strip were moved to Miskuyut. In 2008, the colony witnessed huge expansion carried out through converting numerous caravans into houses; the colony covered a total area 0f 609 dunums back then.
The colony expansion proceeded reaching double its size back then.
